


WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING

by AgnesClementine



Series: THE DEMON OF SAN FRANCISCO [3]
Category: Supernatural, Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Everyone Freaks Out, Gen, Venom still doesn't like Dean, except Anne, the usual, there are some malicious thoughts about pet fish on Venom's part
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:02:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22058227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgnesClementine/pseuds/AgnesClementine
Summary: Eddie knows something is wrong from a few crucial clues. The first of them is the fact that just a few days since the last time they saw each other, his brothers appear on his doorstep.The second clue is a splash of water- holy water, undoubtedly- tossed in his face before he could even get a word out.And the third, and most important, he thinks, clue is Dean shoving him against the wall and pointing a gun at his face.
Relationships: Eddie Brock & Venom Symbiote, Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote
Series: THE DEMON OF SAN FRANCISCO [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1583188
Comments: 187
Kudos: 911





	1. The One With Fishies

**Author's Note:**

> Happy New Year, everyone! <3 <3 <3 
> 
> I was gonna wait until I wrote the whole thing- but then my brain was like, "Nah, post now, you haven't posted anything since last year." 
> 
> So, ta-da. (On that note, pls, ignore the chapter title lol)
> 
> Enjoy and let me know what you think! :)

“Dean,” Sam starts slowly once he’s done staring at him, “Eddie is not possessed.”

“You can’t know that! We didn’t try holy water on him!” Dean argues.

Sam opens his mouth to respond but then shuts it because he realizes there’s no use outright arguing with Dean right now. Smart, Dean thinks to himself, because the time they’d spend arguing, now they can spend packing up and going to exorcise the son of a bitch using their baby brother as a meat suit.

“Okay,” Sam says indulgently, “let’s say Eddie is possessed-“

“ _He is. That’s literally what I just said-_ “ 

“-by a demon. How, exactly, did you get to that?”

And yeah, alright. That’s what Dean’s talking about.

He straightens up, ready to state his case. “When did that-that huge freaking demon thing first appear? Why is Eddie suddenly not so opposed to hunting anymore? Why the fuck is he stocked up with enough chocolate to last him for another decade?”

Sam is not impressed.

He starts counting up his answers on his fingers, ticking off Dean’s questions.

“Eddie’s been living in San Francisco way longer than that thing has been active. By that logic, more than half of the city could be the meat suit. And I wouldn’t say he’s okay with hunting; remember when we asked him to do research for us and he actually ran off? I think he just wanted to see his investigation to the end, Dean. You know how he can get.”

Eddie does have some of Dad’s more borderline obsessive, reckless tendencies, admittedly. But it’s not like he and Sam don’t.

“And maybe he just developed a sweet tooth?”

“He eats _salad_ with chocolate, Sam.”

Sam grimaces at that, not glad for the reminder.

“And,” Dean adds vigorously, “and he lost weight. Now-“ he starts quickly when Sam opens his mouth to pick apart this too, “-what if the demon is feeding off of him? You’ve seen how much he eats, Sam. I mean, I’m all for a good, old fashioned heart attack on a plate, but hell. Even I can’t eat that much in one sitting, as much as it pains me to admit that.”

“I- yeah, fine, that is weird,” Sam finally admits.

Because seriously, Eddie should be gaining weight like there’s no tomorrow. And, well, he’s not.

“We gotta check it out.”

Because yeah, they might have begrudgingly promised the black, fanged, head-eating monster to stop hunting it- but if it is wearing their little brother like a damn prom dress, the deal is off.

  * ●●●●



Eddie knows something is wrong from a few crucial clues. The first of them is the fact that just a few days since the last time they saw each other, his brothers appear on his doorstep.

The second clue is a splash of water- holy water, undoubtedly- tossed in his face before he could even get a word out.

And the third, and most important, he thinks, clue is Dean shoving him against the wall and pointing a gun at his face.

“Guys- Dean, what the hell! Oh my god,” he panics, at the same time trying to ward Dean off with the heels of his palms pushed against his shoulders, and trying to keep Venom from outright biting Dean’s face off.

His racing thoughts and downright frightened heartbeat are not exactly helping him in his endeavor.

And Dean’s death glare is not helping either.

“Sam!” Eddie pleads, seeing how his other brother is at least looking more reluctant about all of this- _whatever the fuck this is_ \- than Dean is.

“You listen up, you black-eyed son of a bitch,” Dean growls, making Venom’s hackles rise, “that’s our brother you’re wearing.”

And oh god. Oh, sweet Jesus _fuck_.

“Oh my God, what- Dean, Dean, it’s me. It’s me,” He rambles. He feels Venom coiling around his spine, just waiting for a word, for _a thought_ of permission, but knows he won’t necessarily wait until Eddie approves it before taking on the threat.

The threat that is at this moment his oldest brother. What the fuck is happening?

“Yeah, sure. And I’m Little Red Riding Hood.”

**He will end up being the grandma if he doesn’t get the fuck away.**

_Please don’t. Let me try first. This is probably just a misunderstanding._

“Dean- Sam, please,” he tries when he sees that Dean won’t budge, “what’s going on?”

Sam’s brows furrow in doubt, “Dean-“

“No, Sam. Something is off.” To Eddie, “You’re good, I give you that. But you’re not Eddie.”

He marks the end of his sentence by tapping the barrel of his gun against Eddie’s forehead, and his head recoiling from cold metal is all Venom.

He’s panicking too. Eddie can feel it like there’s simultaneously too much and not enough air in his lungs.

“Dean, I am. I swear, it’s me. Please put down the gun.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m gonna do that.”

The safety clicks off-

**Eddie! That’s enough!**

_No! Don’t! Not yet, V. Give me a chance._

“Tell us what the hell are you and what you did to Eddie,” Dean demands.

“I didn’t do anything, it’s me!” He yells.

“Bullshit!” Dean barks, shaking him.

Venom snarls, and it reverberates inside his skull.

Hysterically, Eddie thinks how he really doesn’t want new bullet holes in the walls. Filling up the old ones was a fucking pain.

**You’re thinking about walls?! Now?!** Venom’s disbelief at picking him as a host is clear as day.

_I’m under stress! Let me be!_ Eddie defends.

“It’s not!” He screams back at his brother and shoves.

Or, well. Venom shoves- and Dean stumbles back into Sam hard enough to pitch them both off- balance and send them tumbling down in a tangle of limbs.

_Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck-_

“Sorry,” he squeaks, grabbing his jacket and his keys and they bolt out of the apartment with lightning speed.

  * ●●●●



They stare out the open doorway in baffled silence. That- that didn’t really go as planned.

Dean expected the thing to drop the pretense as soon as he called it out. But it just kept the show going. Whatever it is, it’s a stubborn bastard, Dean will it give it that.

“You on board with this now?” He asks Sam as they pick themselves up.

He can still feel the pressure where Eddie’s hands pushed him. Christ. Demon not using telekinesis- or whatever demon-mojo- to push them away is weird. And it brings up a doubt of it being a demon at all. It didn’t even react to holy water.

Oh, it’s something possessing Eddie alright. Dean just isn’t so sure what it is anymore.

“What if it’s something else?” Sam asks, apparently thinking along the same lines as Dean.

He scrubs a hand over his face. They haven’t been here even for a day and he’s already tired of it all.

“I don’t know, Sam.”

“What if it’s a spirit, or- or-“

“Then we find a way to get it out of him.”

“And what if we can’t find a way to do that? Dean, the silver isn’t hurting it. And neither is holy water.”

“Then we use the angel blade. Hell, that covers pretty much everything, doesn’t it?”

Sam’s eyebrows make a beeline for his hairline, “You want to _stab Eddie_?”

And shit. Fuck. He’s right.

Dean throws his hands up. “Well, in that case, I’m out of ideas.”

They search the place, carefully; because once they get Eddie back, he’s gonna bitch at them like nothing for going through his things. But there are no runes, no sigils, no hex bags, no eyes in jars or shit like that. Save for the scary amount of chocolate and impressive stock of his fridge (and the disturbing sight of pizza leftovers covered in chocolate in the microwave), Eddie’s apartment is completely normal.

But then again, monsters have made pretend-normalcy an art.

  * ●●●●



Venom steers them in the direction of the pet store. Eddie doesn’t know why but anywhere where his brothers are not is good enough for him.

His eyes blink at the tank swarming with small slivery-red fish with beautiful tails whose pattern reminds Eddie of tiger stripes. The tag in the bottom says those are Red Mosaic Guppy.

**Hey, Eddie-**

_I’m not buying them so you can eat them_ , Eddie cuts off Venom's expected request. He feels his shoulders draw up by an inch with Venom’s petulance, but as they keep watching the fish swim about peacefully, the muscles relax.

They watch in silence as two Black Veil Tail Angelfish amble through fake seaweed, glorious tails and tiny flippers swooshing through the water. Venom follows their movements with the focus of a cat that’s about to dip its paw into a fishbowl, so Eddie decides that’s enough fish-watching for now.

Besides, the mere thought of fish guts versus fish meat ratio in goldfish is making his stomach turn.

He greets the store worker who’s been eyeing him suspiciously for a while now goodbye and is reminded of his would-be-dinner when his own hunger makes itself aware with a growl of his stomach.

He sighs pitifully. Right. They’ll have to go buy something.

  * ●●●●



“Where do you think they went?” Sam asks, trying to bring Dean out of his brooding where he’s slumped on Eddie’s couch.

“I don’t freaking know. To sacrifice babies to Satan?” He frowns, “Or, uh, not Satan, but you get what I mean.”

Sam rolls his eyes.

He wants to suggest they get back to bunker, do some research because Sam has no idea what they’re dealing with here.

Eddie went a long way from skinny little kid they first met but he still couldn’t have the strength to shove Dean- both of them, really- away so effortlessly. So it’s something that’s strong, fast, and is possibly feeding off of Eddie despite the copious amounts of food it already consumes through him.

Sam is still not convinced that Eddie is the host of that “demon of San Francisco”- and he kind of doubts that Dean thinks so too. It would be too easy. Right?

Or maybe not easy since they still don’t know what exactly that is. And how to kill it.

Dean groans loudly.

“Okay. Let’s just- let’s go over this. Again.”

“I think we should go back to the bunker,” he admits quickly.

Dean stares at him. “What? Hell on. Sam, Eddie is-“

“Yeah, I know, Dean. But how are we supposed to help him if we don’t know what’s got him?”

Dean is overprotective by nature, there’s just no going around it. God knows Sam tried and all it gave him were headaches. But that also means that he has a nasty habit of rushing in headfirst without regard for consequences.

…kind of like Eddie and, Christ, what atrocity did Sam commit in his past life to deserve getting saddled up with the _two_ of them?

“Let’s talk to his friends. Maybe they noticed something weird about him,” Dean suggests instead.

“You know any of his friends?”

Honestly, Sam doesn’t recall Eddie ever talking about anyone he hangs out with. He feels guilty for not asking.

  * ●●●●



Anne’s just settled down on the couch with a glass of red wine when someone knocked on the door. She expected Eddie and Venom because, well, it’s just about the time when they go out for their…thing, and they’ve developed somewhat of a habit of stopping by to say hello.

What she didn’t expect were Eddie’s brothers, wearing patented, handsome Winchester/Brock faces of misery. Dean’s is spiced up with an expression of a wet cat, and Sam’s with that of a kicked puppy.

She blinks at them, taken aback because, according to Eddie, they’ve only left town a couple of days ago- and from previous experiences, she knows that the next visit should be scheduled in about six months.

“Hi?” She voices with confusion, only slightly self-conscious in Dan’s pajama bottoms and a T-shirt with his college’s logo printed on the front.

“Anne, hi,” Sam says awkwardly, “sorry for dropping by like this, but we hoped we could talk.”

At the same time, Dean says, “We need to talk.”

Well, if Dean’s here to make good on his promise from the shovel talk from their first meeting, she figures he’s about a year too late. Thus eliminates that possibility and lets them in.

“Sorry but, how did you know where I live?” She asks, sure that Eddie would ask before giving them her address- or at least called to give her a heads up.

Sam hunches down sheepishly, “We uh- Internet?”

She blinks, “Right.” She goes to pick her glass of wine; she’s got a feeling she’ll need it if she wants to survive this.

“Ask away,” she says, ready to bullshit them like she never did anyone else.

  * ●●●●



Eddie heaves himself up onto a dock, water splashing behind him and completely dry as Venom retracts under his skin.

As it turned out, Eddie had on his person a total of a bit of rusty pocket change, so a cooked meal was off the table. The seals, though, satisfied Venom’s hunger- and to extent Eddie’s- quite nicely.

The copper in his mouth is not as nice. But, Eddie is learning how to live with it.

_I’m adapting, see? You’re not the only fancy fucker who can do it._

Venom snorts, responds, **Keep telling yourself that.**

_Why thank you for permission. I will._

Venom grumbles about smart-ass humans and nudges them in direction of the parking lot, where they left their bike.

Now, as nice as the mental link is- Eddie has learned to appreciate it very, very much- it also means that there’s pretty much nothing they can hide from each other.

**You’re avoiding thinking about your brothers** , Venom calls him out on the highway.

Eddie sighs because- _Yeah._

**Why?**

_Because they tried to kill me?_ Hesitantly and with a tinge of confusion, _Us? Anyway, they figured it out. Somehow._

Eddie doesn’t have any solid evidence- except for Dean shoving a gun in his face- but there’s no other explanation.

He hoped they’d drop their interest in Venom once they pleaded them and showed them they don’t mean harm- **To the innocent.**

But apparently he was wrong.

**They don’t believe that I am good** , Venom says with conviction, **they think I’m hurting you.**

Eddie clears his suddenly tight throat, blinks to clear his vision, _They don’t know shit. You’re good_.

He’s not getting choked up for himself; it’s all Venom, all their nerves and thoughts and feelings tangled up and knit together- and they have no other outlet than through his own tears.

Eddie has to find a way to explain it to them that this is all one huge mess of a misunderstanding. He needs to get it through their thick, Winchester-stubborn skulls that Venom is not a monster they have to kill.

**You’re also Winchester-stubborn.**

_Exactly_.

Something will have to give and it’s not going to be Eddie.

  * ●●●●



They’ve barely plopped themselves back in Impala when Eddie’s phone started ringing. The… _thing_ riding him left it behind in its hurry to flee the apartment. They took it with them in hopes of finding some clues on it, but they haven’t actually had luck in cracking the password yet.

It lights up with ‘Anne’ flashing brightly on the screen.

“So much about not staying in contact,” Dean comments, watching the device ring.

They asked Anne all the right, innocent questions. And she told them that she and Eddie don’t talk anymore, no sir, and that she honestly can’t say what he’s up to or where he might be. Which wouldn’t be so hard to believe after one year since breaking off the engagement, but, well, the truth is literally shining into their faces.

“Dude, isn’t she, like, a lawyer? Lawyers aren’t supposed to lie.”

Dean knew he liked her for a reason- and it wasn’t just making sure Eddie doesn’t end up merging with his laptop and his files and his articles and what-not- but it’s kinda inconvenient when it’s standing in the way of finding their brother.

“You know this means she probably knows something?” Sam pipes up, the phone still ringing.

“No shit she knows something. Nobody stays in contact with their ex just for giggles.” Not even Eddie, no matter how big of a softie he is. At least Dean thinks so.

If they’re still talking, that means that there’s something holding them together. Dean wonders if it’s this monster. Does Anne know? Did she notice how Eddie changed?

Sam rolls his eyes at him, “Right. You think Eddie might come here?”

“Oh, I bet he will,” he says. Then he admits, “I just don’t know when.”

Until then, he supposes they’ll just have to wait. Great.

  * ●●●●



They crawl in through Anne and Dan’s bedroom window, conveniently on the side not facing the street where his brothers are not so inconspicuously parked.

**They are not giving up.**

“No.”

**They went after Anne.**

“To Anne, V. Not after her.”

**Same thing.**

“It’s really not.”

**Su-**

Footsteps advance and then the door slowly opens. Anne looks at them sitting underneath the windowsill.

“I heard your voice. C’mon, there’s chocolate milk in the fridge,” she tells them.

They shuffle up on their feet and follow after her.

“You guys want to clue me in on why I just had to play 20 questions with your brothers?” She calls over her shoulder and Eddie cringes.

“Sorry. It’s, uh, a long story.”

“Yeah, well. By the looks of it, your brothers are not going anywhere, so we have time. Start talking.”

And yeah, there’s that no-nonsense attitude that got Eddie wrapped around her finger.

**I can have a no-nonsense attitude too, Eddie.**

Eddie ignores him, feeling the heat rising to his cheeks.

“Uh, well. They know about V. And I’m pretty sure they want to kill him,” he sums up, despite his previous statement.

Anne hands him a carton of chocolate milk and straw and pours a fresh glass of red wine for herself. Ah, alcohol. Eddie misses it in times like this. But Venom has a strange aversion to it, so they had to make a compromise. He gets to drink on New Year’s Eve because everybody drinks on New Year’s Eve, and he gets to drink on his birthday because nobody should be sober on a day they’re supposed to celebrate getting older.

As it is, he only slurps on his chocolate milk sulkily. 

“They seem pretty worried, too,” Anne tells them.

Eddie knows and having to acknowledge it makes him feel like an asshole. He groans and covers his face with his hands.

“I need to find a way to make them listen to me,” he says into his palms, “preferably before someone gets shot or maimed.”

Anne is silent, so he peeks at her from between his fingers, dragging his hands down his face. She’s shaking her head at him.

“You are a mess. The two of you, and your brothers.”

“Hey. You say that like you weren’t going to get married into this family,” he teases, trying to relax and lighten up the atmosphere.

Anne indulges him, even though it wasn’t that good of a joke, and snorts.

“Good thing I didn’t, huh?”

“Yeah.”

If someone told him things would turn out this well- minus the, uh, current situation- Eddie would assume they were dropped on their head as a child. Repeatedly. But, yeah, everything did turn out great.

There’s a knock on the door.

Anne sighs, looks at the clock, “Might be Dan. Hang on.”

It- it’s not Dan.

“You guys, whatever happens- don’t you dare jump through that window,” Anne says, catching them looking at the window with contempt. Eddie is impressed she managed to sneak a peek at them from behind Sam and Dean's broad-shouldered forms.

**We can make it.**

_I know._

**But Anne would be mad.**

_Yep._

**So we won’t.**

_Uh-huh_.

In front of her, his brothers are staring at him like he’s a part spooked and part rabid animal. Which honestly isn’t that far off.

He expects Dean to whip out a gun again- but he doesn’t. Everyone is just standing very still, staring at everyone else.

“Okay,” Anne starts slowly, “I just want everyone to know, while we’re all still civil, that if there’s a single hole or a bump on this house after tonight, God help you.”

“There won’t be-“ **Not even a little?** “-no, not even a little, V.”

**Lame.**

Eddie rolls his eyes.

“Okay, well, _while we’re all still civil_ , how about you clue us in on what the fuck is going on?” Dean says.

“I really rather wouldn’t,” Eddie tells them. Because really, he’d rather chew his arm off and that’s a real possibility here.

Dean’s not having it, “Tough shit. Start with what you are and what the fuck are you doing with our brother.”

And _oh_ , the accusing, assuming tone of his voice.

Eddie throws their arms up in frustration and yells, “Oh my God! He’s not doing anything with me! We fucking live together!”

“Eddie?” Sam asks.

“Yes! It’s me! The whole damn time you- you hot-headed lunatics!”

“What the fuck do you mean you live together? Why the hell are you cozying up with a demon?”

“He’s not a demon, for fuck’s sake! He’s an alien!”

That is the precise moment when Dean flips his shit.


	2. The One Where Some Things Come To Light (And Some Are Better Left Undiscussed)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is...longer than I expected it to be lol. There's gonna be another- probably shorter- chapter after this to end this fic, and after that, I'm probably going to write some case fics with all the boys. Maybe have them meet certain hunters. ;)
> 
> (I'm also very tempted to write a story with the boys pre-Venom?? When they were kids, if you guys would be interested in that.)
> 
> Anyway, enjoy and let me know what you think, I love to hear your thoughts! :) <3

Eddie’s heartbeat is ringing in his ears. He’s tired and irritated, and he wants to go to sleep, thank you very much.

“Alien?! Where the hell did you find an alien?!” Dean yells, eyes bugging out.

“It was an accident!”

“How the fuck do you accidentally get an alien?!”

“ _Accidentally,_ ” he grits out.

“I- Okay, guys? How about you stop screaming?”

Dean whips to face Sam, points at Eddie, “No, I am not gonna stop screaming, Sam! Eddie’s got a freaking alien living up his ass!”

**Only part-time.**

“ _Oh my God-_ “ This is a good moment for Earth to open up and swallow Eddie whole.

_Oh my God, you asshole. I thought you don’t like Dean._

**I don’t. But I like riling you up, that’s always fun.**

_Prick._

“Oh God, Mrs. and Mr. Dolley will wake up to this and then I’ll have to move out,” Anne says in the background.

Dean turns to face him again, “And how- I mean- Where does it- Is it actually- you know?“

**I think we fried his wires, Eddie.**

“Wh- Dean, oh my God, no! What the hell!” Eddie splutters, turning redder with each second.

“Well, I don’t know! I’m not the fucking alien expert!”

**Obviously.**

“And I am?!”

“You live with one!”

**He’s got you there.**

Eddie just makes a noise of frustration to that.

“Okay! You both need to calm down!” Sam bellows, and yeah, that effectively shuts everyone up.

Eddie thinks he can take a second to reboot his brain now- God, how he misses alcohol- but then Sam starts up with his bullshit.

“So, uh, where is it exactly?”

Eddie groans in exasperation, gestures vaguely down the line of his body, hoping it will suffice. “Everywhere.”

“ _Everywhere?_ ” His brothers chorus, following his hands with their eyes like they’ll catch a glimpse of Venom if they watch closely.

“That’s what I just said.”

This was so much easier with Anne, with her having first-hand experience, however brief. And she explained it to Dan, so Eddie didn’t have to do it then either.

John gave him the most excruciatingly awkward talk about the birds and the bees a few months after they first met and, until now, it held the place as the most embarrassing thing in his life. Eddie thinks he has a healthy amount of shame in him, if maybe slightly numbed down through years spent as a reporter and in Dean’s company, but there’s not much he gets embarrassed about.

Venom is thoroughly enjoying the rarely felt sensation. Because he’s a bastard.

**I could still get us out of here.**

Eddie knows; that’s what’s making this whole thing a hundred times worse.

Anne quietly slips off into the living room, bottle of wine in tow.

Dean rubs his forehead, says, “Dude, start from the beginning.”

Eddie takes a deep breath. This is going to take a while.

  * ●●●●



Dean is unsurprisingly suspicious- even after Eddie walked them through the whole thing.

An alien. Eddie has an alien living in his body. Sam is honestly still not sure if that’s better or worse than a demon.

“So it’s like a tapeworm?” Dean asks, tactless.

Eddie bristles, then says, “Wha- _Fuck, V, inside voices! Yeah, yeah, I’ll tell him!_ \- He’s not a tapeworm, Dean.”

Dean shrugs, “Then what?”

“He’s an alien, there’s no ‘what’.”

“Why you?” Sam asks.

Eddie scratches his head, “He needed a host. And we’re compatible-“

“Yeah, but why’d you let it?” Dean cuts in.

Eddie stares at them like it should be obvious. “Because he’d die in our atmosphere on his own. And stop calling him ‘it’, he’s not a thing!”

Dean groans, “Yeah, but Eddie. _A freaking alien_ , kid.”

Eddie sighs, long and heavy, and just throws his hands up as if saying, “ _Yeah, well fuck it._ ”

Sam is trying to see any indicators that there’s something else sharing body space with their brother, but aside from Eddie’s random, nonsensical sentences and expressions, there really aren’t any. And honestly, it’s not so strange to hear Eddie mumbling to himself.

Eddie turns to look at him, “You know, he’s not just gonna appear if you stare long enough.”

Sam jerks in embarrassment, surprised to have been caught.

“About that- how does that exactly work?” Dean pipes up.

“How exactly what works?” Eddie asks back with a frown.

“The whole…inside-out thing?” Dean says clumsily, trying to convey the concept with a few useless hand gestures.

“Uh-“

“Like can it- _he_ just go out at night or what? What’s the deal?”

Eddie snorts. “Just at night- oh man. Yeah, no, that’s- that’s not how it works.”

At their prompting looks, he says, “He just gets out when he wants. It’s not nuclear science.”

“Whenever he wants?-“

“Don’t worry,” Eddie tells them with a roll of his eyes (Sam wonders if it was really him.) and then immediately scratches his ear sheepishly. “We had a nice, long talk about consent.”

There’s a snort from the living room and Eddie’s ears turn pink.

Sam ignores it because there are other things to focus on.

“What’s with the chocolate and, you know, all the food? That’s for…him?”

Eddie nods easily, “Mostly, yeah.”

“But, dude,” Dean says, “chocolate. On everything?”

Eddie sighs again, “It just turns into a habit eventually.”

Just then, dull ringing has Dean jerking on the spot and digging through his pockets until he comes up with a phone gripped in his hand.

“It’s- oh, it’s yours,” he says, handing it over to Eddie.

He frowns at it but still answers.

“Hello?... Yeah, that’s me… Uh-huh, I see… I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name- Paul, okay. Can you tell me more?”

Eddie suddenly jumps to his feet, snatching a pen and a small notepad from his jacket. He’s writing down something, nodding and humming while he paces.

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do. Thanks.”

He hangs up and says, “I gotta go,” and then he winces, adding, “I guess we’ll continue this conversation later.”

That has both of them on their feet as well.

“Whoa, whoa,” Dean says, “where’s the fire?”

“Who was that?” Sam adds.

“I got a tip on something that I’m working on,” Eddie tells them simply. He ducks into the living room to say a quick “Bye,” to Anne and then marches surely towards the door.

Sam and Dean exchange a look.

“Wait,” Dean calls, “we’re coming with you.”

  * ●●●●



Eddie drives to the industrial site where Paul told him the newly formed trafficking ring is storing their merchandise. He’s been on the case only for a few days, but he tugged a few strings so the information is flowing in nicely and if he’s lucky, he’ll hand this over to the boys in blue and, write his article and kiss it sayonara.

Of course, he thinks, tuning in on the Impala’s engine rumbling behind him, if everything goes without a hitch.

They park just at the beginning of a long row of warehouses, hidden behind the first one. There are weeds and grass sprouting from the cracks in the ground and broken glass crunches quietly under Eddie’s boots as he comes to meet his brothers by their car.

“He’s gonna eat someone?” Dean asks as soon as he’s in (their) earshot.

Venom perks up instantly, **Am I?**

“No. And you two better stay out of sight as much as possible because these guys will be giving statements to the cops,” Eddie says, turning towards the buildings.

**Just one? The worst of them?**

“No,” he starts walking, close to the wall, and hears his brothers following in silence.

**But just one, Eddie?**

“This is a work night. What do we do on a work night?”

**We work** , Venom responds petulantly, knowing what’s coming next.

“Exactly. And when we work, what don’t we do?”

**Eat bad people because the police need them.**

“Bingo,” Eddie snaps his fingers, eyes scanning the windows for signs of movement. In the third building, the moon reflects from something shiny and moving.

**And bingo.**

“Yeah,” he agrees, feeling the thrill of the hunt washing over him. Even though they are really not going to eat anyone tonight, Venom is still a predator, to a certain degree, so the excitement of the chase is still very much present.

Eddie’s heading for the door when Dean loops his hand around their arm and says, “Whoa, whoa, what’s the plan?”

Eddie blinks at him, “We go in and we stop the bad guys?”

“Dude, that’s not a plan.”

“Sure it is- there’s nothing else to do,” Eddie will go in, snap a few photos for the article, round up the bad guys somewhere and call the police.

Dean’s eye twitches, “It’s really not. They probably have guns. Wait, what am I saying? _They definitely have guns._ ”

Eddie shrugs, “I’m kinda bulletproof?”

His brothers both make expressions of surprise like they haven’t shot at them before.

“And what do we do?” Sam asks.

Eddie honestly doesn’t know. He can handle this on his own, but since they’re already here-

“No offense, but, uh, try to stay out of the way.”

  * ●●●●



“Stay out of the way?” Dean asks nobody in particular, just kind of blown away and honestly a tiny bit offended-

“No front door? Too direct huh?” Eddie says, also seemingly not addressing anyone- unless if he’s talking to the, uh, ah, the alien…thing. Like he did while they were walking to here.

He cranes his neck up, looking at the fire escape and yeah, that’s a good idea except the ladder is too high.

“Ah, fuck it. Up we go.” Eddie says, shaking his hands by his sides.

Dean wants to ask if he wants a boost, but he just takes a run at the wall, uses it to push himself up, and grabs the ladder. Dean doesn’t remember him being this…parkour-ish before.

Sam huffs out an impressed breath.

“You two coming or what?” He asks them when he climbs up.

“Okay, we get it. You’re a badass now, show-off,” Dean grumbles, but climbs up the ladder wordlessly when Eddie pushes it down.

Peering in through a window, Dean can see a labyrinth of palettes and boxes of whatever it is these guys are holding here. He can also see multiple people with guns. So that’s nice.

Eddie got his phone out and is snapping photos left and right.

“Dude.”

“Hush. It’s for work.”

Dean rolls his eyes. Christ. Is this what he usually does?

When he’s done, Eddie puts his hand on the bottom of the window. There’s no way for him to turn the latch that way unless he has some telekinesis superpowers, but Dean still sees it move from the other side of the glass. He pushes it open then, and Dean catches a thin, black tendril slip inside his sleeve. Huh. Well, that’s handy.

And also slightly disturbing.

“Stay here,” Eddie mouth at them, and then gets in.

Dean saw what that thing inside Eddie can do, alright? But he can’t help feeling wired up, waiting for Eddie to get in trouble. He can feel his shoulders tensing as he watches him sneaking over a metal structure beam, light on his feet like a cat.

But, Jesus, if any of these guys on the ground looked up, they could pick him off like a sitting duck.

Though, he makes it all the way to the other side of the building, and then they watch him just jump down behind a big stack of boxes, not even making a sound. There’s a determined set to his spine, alert and obscured by the shadows.

He flicks his arm, sends something soaring over the boxes and palettes. It makes a loud clang against the set of metal crates well inside the impromptu rat maze. The men all jerk and twitch at the noise, and a few of them go off to investigate.

Sam and Dean have the perfect view from their spot, but the guys down there are pretty much blind to the layout, running into each other a few times.

Almost absently, Dean thinks Dad would be impressed by Eddie; how he slinks behind the guy closest to him, knocks him out cold and lays him down so his fall doesn’t make any noise. Not that Dad was disappointed- maybe a little, by his utter disinterest in learning how to take care of himself, properly, like a hunter- but there was a look in his eyes, whenever Eddie wasn’t watching, and he thought he was being subtle. A look like Eddie was made of glass and he was constantly terrified he’d accidentally get broken- not by any of them, but like a very precious vase that got knocked over by some careless prick because no one was there to catch it when it fell off the shelf.

God, Dean hated that look. And he hated Eddie for bringing that look to Dad’s face when Eddie would be allowed a break from running circles around the field and Sam and he would still be forced to run suicides right in front of them. In retrospect, it seems ridiculous, and embarrassing, because Dean absolutely understands it now.

The gunmen fall one by one, victims to Eddie’s sneak-attacks and a surprisingly efficient right hook, or lured away by more tiny projectiles and noise they make. Dean doesn’t know where they’re being lured to, just that they are all subtly being herded in one direction like sheep, until the bunch of them- the only ones still conscious, really- peers into a dark room that’s probably a break room or some kind of a storage, if Dean has to guess.

From the dark, Eddie emerges to body-check the guy in the back with enough force to send him and the two guys in front of him right into the mouth of the doorway. There’s a grapple of movements, hands catching arms and shirts in attempts to regain balance, but ultimately, Eddie locks them all in.

“Well damn,” Dean says for the lack of anything better and Sam huffs beside him, equally impressed.

Eddie’s head turns to them then, an expression of triumph and self-satisfaction giving way to a genuinely pleased smile. He raises his arms to give them thumbs up for a job well done- even though they were only spectators- and then digs out his phone to call the cops.

  * ●●●●



Eddie managed to shoo his brothers home before the police arrived- with a lot of convincing that he’s going to be just fine.

He watches, content and pleased, as the cops usher the dazed men into the van. The night is dark, but there are lights everywhere- from flashlights to headlights- and he and Venom see well in the dark anyway, so it’s not hard to spot the detective approaching them.

He looks Eddie up and down, says, “So, you’re Eddie Brock,” and ugh, Eddie immediately _knows_. This guy has seen the Video.

He nods, “Yep.” Seven months might have passed, but YouTube is a wonderful, horrible thing that perpetuates your worst moments forever. Eddie saw the video once and decided he doesn’t want to see it ever again as long as he’s alive.

Venom found it hilarious and immediately coaxed Anne in showing him how to download it.

“I’m Detective Jackson. I understand you called us?”

“Yeah.”

“No offense, but what exactly were you doing here?”

Eddie shrugs, “I’m writing an article. I got a tip from an anonymous source that this is where they keep their merch.”

“Uh-huh. An anonymous source to you or just to us?” The detective asks suspiciously.

Eddie grins, “Sorry, I don’t kiss and tell. That’s all?”

Jackson’s mouth twitches against his will, but he just hums, says “For now.”

Eddie nods at Jackson and turns towards his bike, eager to get home. He likes working, but as a journalist and a writer, there’s a certain amount of time he feels comfortable spending with cops. It’s a principle of the thing.

“Brock!” Jackson calls, “Keep your phone close, I’ll keep in touch.”

Eddie throws him a jaunty wave over his shoulder.

**He likes you** , Venom tells him and Eddie feels his displeasure in his stomach.

_Too bad I’m taken, huh?_ Eddie returns, amused.

**Too bad for him.**

Eddie chuckles quietly to himself, climbing up on his bike.

  * ●●●●



His mirth dies down when he reaches his apartment building, and the Impala parked outside reminds him of the conversation that they still haven’t wrapped up.

He hopes it would be something like; “Where did he come from?” and “What’s his name?” and “What’s his favorite chocolate?” and “Can you actually taste it when he eats someone?” because those are easy questions. Those are questions that Eddie can answer without a hitch.

But considering Dean is his brother, the questions will probably be something more like; “Do you get random human flesh cravings?” and “How does it feel?” and “Where does he go when you take a shower or need some ‘alone time’?” because the answer to the last one is, “Well, you see, Dean, he doesn’t go anywhere. He’s always right there with me.”

And Eddie is absolutely not looking forward to that.

**We could go for a snack instead?** Venom suggests- because he’s hungry again.

Eddie sighs, forcing his feet up the stairs, “Sorry, V, tonight’s a take-out night.”

Venom rumbles mournfully, but Eddie manages to cheer him up with a promise of a lot- _a lot_ \- of chocolate.

He’s half holding onto a hope that his brothers went off to sleep, but that hope dies when he finds them waiting on the couch.

**They moved our stuff, Eddie** , Venom tells him as soon as he locks the door.

He looks at them, “Did you go through our stuff?”

“Dude,” Dean says, “how the hell can you tell?”

“ _Dude_ ,” Eddie returns, “I’ve got a built-in alien.”

**I’m not built-in.**

_I know._

**I’m a bioorganic organism, not a machine.**

_I know._

“Touché,” Dean responds.

“You guys are hungry? We’re hungry. Want me to order something for you?” He asks before plopping down on the sofa.

With Anne and Dan he’d just squeeze himself on the couch with them, but something tells him his brothers are a bit more touchy about their personal space.

“Uh, no, tha-“

“A burger would be nice.”

Dean shrugs at Sam’s unimpressed look, and Eddie calls his favorite fast food joint almost without looking. It would be embarrassing how regularly he orders from them, but he does have an alien living inside him so he thinks he’s entitled to a few guilty pleasures every now and then.

“Okay,” Sam starts as soon as he hangs up, “you two are- that’s permanent?”

“Uhh, what do you mean?” Eddie asks, peeling off his jacket.

“I mean, you two can’t separate?”

“We can,” Eddie says, remembering the second MRI and how, despite being relived at the time to be free, he felt hollow and lonely in his own body.

“But?”

“We don’t like it. And like I said, V, can’t survive in our atmosphere on his own for very long.”

Their eyebrows arched as soon as he said “we”, and Dean says, “V?”

“Yeah, as in Venom. It doesn’t have the same meaning in his language as it does in ours,” he explains, scratching his temple. He can understand it when Venom tells him- it’s more like a concept, a sequence of abstract symbols and feelings and thoughts- but he doesn’t know how to convey it to his brothers because, well, there are no words to convey it.

“Like how in Japan 4 means death but in English it’s just a number?” Sam asks.

“I- something like that? I mean, I don’t know. It’s a name. You know how every name has a meaning but not everybody knows their name’s meaning? It just gets lost or changed?” He’s probably doing a shit job at explaining it, but Venom is pleased that he’s putting effort in it.

They talked about this before, and Eddie offered him to pick a new name when he found out the meaning of this one in English, but he wanted to keep it. Despite not having any desire to return to his own “race”, despite being even put-off by it, the longer he was with Eddie, he still wanted to keep this part of it.

Sam is nodding like he gets it, so he supposes he’s not doing such a shit job after all.

And then the dreaded part comes.

“I’m probably gonna regret asking, but how does sex work?”

For a brief moment as Eddie chokes on his own saliva, he hysterically thinks Dean means sex between him and Venom, but then realizes he’s thinking of hook-ups and one night stands. Thank fuck.

“How about I don’t answer that?” He wheezes out as Venom’s cackling echoes in his skull and warms up his chest.

Dean nods quickly, saying, “Yeah. That’s probably smart.”

“How do you communicate?” Sam asks, swiftly changing the subject. “Does he talk?”

“Oh yeah,” Eddie responds enthusiastically.

“He’s a chatterbox, huh?” Dean asks in face of his response.

Eddie purses his lips, says, “Imagine your intrusive thoughts having a weirdly developed personality.”

**Hey!**

_Oh, shush, would you rather have me outright call you an asshole?_

**Takes one to know one.**

“Huh,” Dean says, clearly imagining it. Then he shakes himself, says, “Hey, how do you make him do stuff? Like, with the latch? Do you have to explain it?”

Eddie quirks his eyebrows at Venom’s offense at that question, says, “That was actually on his own initiative.”

Sam quickly launches with, “So he’s like a crow? He can think rationally?”

Eddie huffs a laugh and tells them, “Seriously, he’s just like another person. He’s not that different,” because this could go off forever if he doesn’t establish this.

**I’m not just like another person** , Venom tells him and Eddie rolls his eyes.

_Yeah, yeah. Humans are deeply flawed and definitely not superior species. I know._

They have frequent debates on the matter; lately just for the hell of it because Eddie devastatingly realized early on that Venom actually has some strong points and is, in fact, kind of totally right.

“So he just talks to you in your head?”

Eddie blinks, asks “Uh, yeah, why? Do you want to talk to him?” and then realizes it’s probably a very bad idea.

Sam and Dean consider it- their eyes widening because they probably think he’s gonna come out in all of his nine feet of glory.

**Oh! Can I?** Venom asks, eager to make them squirm.

_Not in the apartment, you know the rules._

Sam says, “Uh, sure?”

At that moment, Eddie has a strike of genius, and asks, “Hey, can you behave?”

His brothers are quiet, so he asks, “Uh, guys?”

They startle.

“You were asking us?” Sam asks.

“Yeah.”

“We thought you were-“ Dean starts, gesturing at him.

“So?”

Dean rolls his eyes, “Yeah, we can behave. What kind of question is that?”

Eddie ignores him, asks, _And you?_

**I always behave.**

_Uh-huh. V-_

Venom, already knowing what Eddie has in plan, says, **Go to sleep, I’m gonna be nice. Nice-ish. I promise.**

Eddie snorts softly but knows that’s the best he’s gonna get.

“Gimme a sec,” he tells his brothers and goes to change into sleeping pants and a soft T-shirt.

When he emerges from his room, Dean says, “What, you’re going to sleep?”

Eddie grins slyly, “Yep. And I sincerely hope the apartment stays intact until I wake up.”

And then he curls up on the sofa.


	3. The One Where Eddie Sleeps and Everyone Else Finds a Common Ground (Kinda)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the long wait ajdhbvdbkv life has been something lately lol XD
> 
> Enjoy and let me know what you think! :)

They watch Eddie get settled and Dean is opening his mouth to protest because _how the fuck are they supposed to handle that thing on their own_ but Eddie has already closed his eyes. And Dean knows that for all that he can resist sleeping like it’s an Olympic sport, once his eyes close, he sinks into it like a fucking rock. And then he’s impossible to wake up.

There’s barely a beat of peace and quiet, and then a mass of black seeps out of Eddie’s chest, anchored to him by dozen root-like tendrils. The bulk of it morphs into a vague head-shape, a set of unsettling white eyes peering at them and rows of long fangs gleaming like something out of a horror movie. And not that cheap special effects kind of shit.

Sam speaks up first, awkwardly saying, “Hi,” while Dean wonders where the fuck do the teeth come from.

It- Venom, _apparently_ , doesn’t return the greeting and instead says, “You’re sitting on the remote.”

A thin string of black reaches out towards him, and Dean jumps away with a shout just a second before it curls around the remote that was wedged between the armrest, cushions and his thigh.

“Hey!” He says, watching as the alien practically possessing his baby brother delicately presses the ‘ON’ button and settles on a history channel. Which-

“Really? And here I thought you’d be more of an Animal Planet kind of, uh, guy.” The jab falls a bit flat when he falters on the last word, but the alien seems to be barely paying him any attention anyway, face- or what counts as a face, Dean supposes- turned to the TV screen.

He turns to give Sam a “you seeing this?” look, but then the alien speaks again, saying, “Eddie likes these history shows.”

Dean frowns. “And what, you’re gonna retell it to him when he wakes up?”

“No,” the alien responds flatly, “when he wakes up, he’ll already know what happened.”

Dean is still taken aback by the smartass, matter-of-fact tone, but Sam is good enough to ask, “What do you mean?”

“What I see, Eddie sees,” he tells them simply.

Dean’s eyes follow him all the way back to Eddie, and he thinks there’s more of him now. He’s draped over Eddie like a blanket, a fine sheet of shiny black mass covering his shoulders and cradling the back of his head gently as he sleeps, more of it just situated randomly over his curled up body. It would be almost sweet if there weren’t thick spider webs of black connecting them all, tangled with his fingers possessively, even reaching up towards his face.

It dawns on Dean how easy it would be for him to hurt Eddie now, just crush him like a ladybug in a careless child’s fist. And there would be nothing Sam or he could do about it.

The realization settles heavily in the pit of his stomach, makes him queasy and nauseous.

Before he can chase the thought into a dark, dark rabbit hole, the alien tells them, unprompted, “I’m not going to hurt Eddie.”

And sure, it sounds sincere enough but Dean hasn’t survived this long thanks to his blind belief.

“That’s really nice to hear, but, uh, see, there’s no reason why we should trust you,” he says and that? That gets his attention.

He finally turns to face them, and there’s a loaded pause where no one says or does anything, and Dean is kinda sure they are all gonna die now because he managed to tick off a real, honest-to-fuck alien out of outer space who eats people.

So he’s reasonably surprised when he asks them, “Do you love Eddie?”

Which is a stupid question because of course they do; Eddie is their little brother, he’s their family.

“What- yeah, of course we do,” Sam says, eyebrows pinched in confusion.

“And would you hurt him?”

“Hell no,” Dean fires immediately. He sees what he’s aiming at and he doesn’t fucking like it.

The alien doesn’t say anything to that, but Dean can feel the “ _there you go, you got it, here, have a congratulatory sticker_ ” radiating off him. Figures Eddie would get saddled up with an un-killable, sassy fucker just to make Dean’s life difficult.

He says, “That’s different. We were there while he was growing up, and while he was working to be who he is now, and we know him. You don’t. The way you _care_ about him and the way we do are nothing alike.”

“I know him,” the alien responds heatedly, lurching towards Dean to hiss dangerously, “I am in his _head_. I know what he thinks, I know what he feels. When he’s happy, I’m happy. When he’s sad, I’m sad. When he’s hurt, I fix it. I am Eddie and Eddie is me. We are _one_.”

Eddie stirs on the sofa, and the alien retreats out of their sight within a blink of an eye. Dean swallows nervously when he doesn’t wake up, when he doesn’t move anymore, heart beating in his temples- and then there’s a knock on the door.

Sam walks to the door in a few long strides and opens the door for the delivery guy who peers inside the apartment curiously.

“Damn, with so much food, I thought there was a party going on here,” he says jovially, glancing at Eddie still passed out, rocking out in his pajamas.

Nobody laughs. Sam pays him, taking over two huge plastic bags, and sets them on the coffee table. Dean isn’t all that hungry anymore, but he finds his burger and entertains himself with it while watching with Sam as the alien demolishes the rest of the food. Eddie sleeps like the dead through all of it, the eating, the drinking, the cleanup.

Dean doesn’t know what to say, and Sam is quiet too. The documentary guy on TV droning on and on about the Ming dynasty is a strange background noise that his brain barely registers.

His mind keeps running over the alien’s mini-speech. It’s ridiculous. Or at least it should be. And this whole thing is admittedly one of the weirdest things to have happened to them. But still. Damnit.

Honestly, Eddie had the right idea to check out- even though it means that Dean has to see black vines crawling over him like freakily self-aware grapevine or something.

Suddenly, he feels tired to the bone. This is so above their pay-grade.

“I’m beat,” he says, standing up swiftly and careful not to look at anyone too much, “I’m going to sleep.”

He wants to rest and think about this tomorrow, but he ends up staying awake long after Sam flops down on the other side of the bed, viscerally aware of the TV volume being turned down so low he can’t even hear it anymore.

  * ●●●●



When Eddie wakes up, he pleasantly takes in the fact that his apartment has in fact survived the night and while the talk could’ve gone better, he’s not gonna nitpick and just be thankful that everyone’s extremities are still attached.

Still, Venom shuffles in his stomach like a bad cramp.

**I was good** , he tells Eddie timidly.

“You were, thank you,” Eddie mumbles out loud, warm and sleepy. After Sam went to sleep, Venom laid him over the couch, and he is now mostly comfortable enough to not feel like getting up yet.

**Dean needs to get his head out of his ass.**

“Mhm, yeah,” he responds with a quirk of his mouth, splaying his palm over his stomach. “He’ll come around, I’m sure.”

**Sam is not completely terrible. I guess.**

Eddie huffs out a laugh. “Wow, that’s a big compliment coming from you. Did he bribe you with chocolate?”

**You mean he _should have?_**

He snorts at indignation in Venom’s voice, scrubs a hand over his face.

“No,” he yawns, “you should’ve just talked- and you did. So thank you. You could’ve been a bit easier-“

**Eddieee!**

“I’m just saying.” 

He doesn’t know what progress was made with Dean, but Sam seemed fine enough, from what he saw.

**That history show was on yesterday, they talked about old vases. You want me to show you?**

He grins, “Yeah, V.”

  * ●●●●



Dean hated the idea of Eddie when Dad first told them. Because in his stupid, adolescent mind, who was this new kid? And how dare he just come in and mess up their precious life balance?

And he hated Eddie, a little bit when they actually met him.

And then, then he started loving him.

Eddie is family. And god knows that they didn’t have a lot of that back then. And you always look out for your family. You make sure they are safe, you give your best to protect them, and you’re not being a fucking asshole about it.

It’s time to do that.

When he crawls out of the bed, Sam and Eddie are already seated around the island in the kitchen, cradling their coffees and talking.

Dean stops at the corner, just…takes it in. Wonders if it really is Eddie. Wonders if he’s doing the right thing.

Suddenly, Eddie looks over at him and his expression sobers up.

For a blinding second, he feels furious. There is an outsider in this family and everyone’s ignoring it. Everyone is ignoring the danger. And then he catches the look in Eddie’s eyes like he’s already resigned to a decision that Dean hasn’t even made yet. And then he just deflates. He can’t tell Eddie what to do with his life. Can’t really tell him what to do at all. He just has to live with it.

“Morning,” he tells them, throwing it all into the wind because what the hell.

Eddie reads him like an open book, and Dean can’t know if the grin on his face is him or the alien, but that doesn’t really matter, does it?

He can’t see the future, and present is blurry as fuck at best, but the past has shown him that, in some cases, he just has to wait and see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! This is the end for now. This series will be marked as not complete bc I definitely have more ideas for this verse, I just think I'm gonna be hella busy and tired for a bit and won't have time to put them on a page for now. <3


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